Jan 03 - Jan 09

Jim is back at college now so I only need to feed myself and Isla for some of the days which means I can get away with recycling meals more regularly. Good news for me, not such good news for any of you who might be reading!

It also means on Sundays and Wednesdays I have to make something for dinner that he can take away with him and that will microwave ok as the B&B he stays in on Mon and Thurs nights has a MW but no oven. I find this a real pain as there are so many easy, tasty things I could send him away with that require an oven, but it's harder with the MW. It means a rather large preponderance of stews and the like. Grrr. Oh well, it's either that or have him eating crap out of a pub and turning into Jabba the hut - a very skint Jabba the hut at that. Never a good look.

This week I shall be making:

Vegetable curry (V)

Leek and potato soup (V)

Homemade Glamorgan sausages (V)

Roast chicken

Fishcakes

Halloumi salad with tangy tomato dressing (V)

Thurs, Jan 03

Vegetable curry

We have a really awesome, fairly inexpensive, curry place near us so I very rarely attempt to make curry, but I was pleasantly surprised by this recipe. It is very easy, pretty quick, and actually tastes like a curry! My previous efforts have always fallen a bit short.

Fry one onion and a clove of crushed garlic in some groundnut oil. When soft add 1 tspn of ground cumin, 1 tspn ground coriander, 1 tspn turmeric and 1 tspn ground chilli (or not if your kids don't like chilli) and fry until fragrant. Add a selection of chopped vegetables (as many as you need for your purposes, approx 450g for this recipe) add the harder ingredients such as carrots, butternut squash or potatoes first and the softer veg like cauliflower, courgette after a few minutes. Add a tin of chopped toms and about a 1/2 - 1 pint of vegetable stock. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 30 - 40 mins, with the lid off. At the end add half a block of grated creamed coconut. Serve with basmati rice.

Poppy eats this with enthusiasm (rare!!). Isla loves it too, as she does most food based substances! You could add some low fat yoghurt or creme fraiche at the end if no coconut, or to reduce the fat content... And the ubiquitous coriander of course. I have a bit of a fight to smuggle coriander into food around here as I think Jim had some tragic accident with it as a child. It's the only way to explain his loathing of it now.

Fri, Jan 04

Salmon fishcakes

I should warn in advance that these are ones I made a while ago and froze. It works better this way.

Mash up a quantity of peeled, boiled potatoes, not sure how many, about 6 medium seems a fair guess. Add the zest of a lemon, a good pinch of cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, and about a tbspn of melted butter and 1 large tin of wild red salmon. Bind it all with 2 beaten eggs. You can add other things according to taste, but these are for Poppy really so I keep it fairly simple. Hopefully she won't notice the lemon zest this time! Mix it all up and form into patties. I like to keep them quite small, it makes them easier to re-heat later, and means they don't collapse into a mushy pile.

At this stage I freeze them - line some baking trays with clingfilm and bung in the freezer. When frozen you can move them into smaller containers.

When you want to use them, dip (still frozen) in some beaten egg and then in some breadcrumbs and fry until golden. Obviously, they will still be frozen in the middle, so you can either put them in the oven (hence keeping them small) or I just nuke 'em in the microwave for a minute. Quick and easy and homemade. I think the traditional accompaniment to fishcakes is peas and an ocean of ketchup, but I like to make a little sweet chilli mayo and serve them with salad for Jim and I.

Saturday, Jan 05

Homemade Glamorgan Sausages

These are fantastically tasty. I use cheddar instead of caephilly which most recipes recommend as I don't often have caerphilly in the fridge. This recipe would make 12 decent size patties. It is quite messy so I tend to make some for the freezer too. If freezing, don't do the dipping in egg and breadcrumbs until you want to eat them. This is not particularly healthy in itself, but we serve it with a load of veg for Poppy as an alternative to a roast or whatever. It would be nice served as a light snack with some kind of chutney and salad too. I use brown bread crumbs, works just as well as white.

Sweat 2 finely chopped leeks for 1 minute in some butter, in a bowl mix these leeks together with 250g of fresh breadcrumbs, 200g of grated cheddar a few leaves of fresh thyme or some flat leaf parsely (if available, not really necessary) and season well. Lightly beat 4 eggs with 2 tbspns of wholegrain mustard and add to the other ingredients. Shape into sausages / patties and coat in flour. Leave to chill for at least 20 mins. Coat in egg and breadcrubs and fry until golden. I tend to make these in batches and keep them warm in the oven as they can be a little fiddly if you're making lots and breadcrumb frying is very messy.

These are a winner with kids and grown-ups, a Welsh housemate of mine made them for dinner once about 8 years ago and I've been craving them ever since.

Sunday, Jan 06

LUNCH - Leek and Potato Soup

Sweat an onion and 3 leeks in some olive oil. When soft add 3 - 4 medium potatoes chopped into bite size chunks, skin on or off as you wish. Cook for a few minutes then stir in a clove of chopped garlic and a large spoon of oats. Add enough stock (I always use marigold swiss veg boullion) to cover, a couple of sprigs of thyme and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through. I serve it as it is if the kids aren't around, but for the kids you could peel the potatoes at the start and then blend it at the end with a good glug of milk.

This is one of my safe meals, Poppy will always eat it. Isla isn't so keen, she is funny about potato but she'll eat some bits of roll dunked in it and can shovel that in herself.

DINNER - Roast chicken

I won't go into the details, I'm making this as I can send Jim off with some for his college meals on Monday. I do think groundnut oil makes the best roasties and I don't do anything particularly flash with the chicken, just buy as good a quality of bird as you can afford and the meat will speak for itself. I put half a lemon, half an onion and a couple of bay leaves up it's bottom and rub a little butter and thyme leaves mixture under the skin. I used to obsess about roasts, I would have a different sauce or method for each vegetable and enough washing to keep 3 dishwashers busy. I've learnt it's best to keep things simple in the world of roasts, maybe make a nice sauce for one of the veg if you really have to, like a honey and butter glaze for some carrots and then keep the rest as they come. It all gets drowned in gravy anyway! Plus, as long as your spuds are good, who cares??

MONDAY

Jim isn't around Monday nights so I'll probably have something really easy like beans on toast or an omelette. And lunch will prob be pitta with humous and salad or roasted meditteranean veg.

TUESDAY, 8 Jan
I have Poppy and Jim for dinner tonight, will prob give Pop something out the freezer as Tuesday is a busy day. Jim will get in after the kids have gone to bed, so I can make something for us later.

DINNER - Warm halloumi salad
I got the inspiration for this recipe from an Australian Woman's Weekly recipe book and cannibalised it a bit.

Chargrill some red peppers and slices of courgette, keep these in a warm oven until ready to assemble the salad. Put a big handful of baby spinach on each plate and sprinkle with some drained, tinned chickpeas. Now make the dressing. Fry a finely chopped red onion and crushed clove of garlic in some olive oil, when soft add some tomato juice, (about half a pint) and a couple of teaspoons of muscovado sugar and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Simmer until you're ready to use it. In the meantime, fry some 5mm thick slices of halloumi in a dry non-stick frying pan. When golden on each side, arrange on the plates, then add the veg from the oven and drizzle over the dressing. Lush. I make this quite a lot for friends, esp if I've got veggies coming round. You could also use slices of chargrilled aubergine, but I had a tragic accident with it as child and hate it now! :-)

WEDNESDAY

I'm going to London with my best friend to brave the terrors of Oxford St January sales. I suspect we'll head straight for the pub once we get there and not move... Jim will have to fend for himself as I'm not getting back in till gone 10. I have some veg curry in the freezer from Thursday for him to take away to college.